Public Company News

Okapi Resources has picked up more than 2,000 square kilometres of prospective kaolin ground and joined Australia’s lucrative halloysite hunt. White Knight in South Australia and Holly in Western Australia are two key projects secured by the company with its acquisition of private resource group Bulk Mineral Holdings.

ASX-listed Classic Minerals has successfully commissioned its Australian-designed “Gekko” mobile processing plant in a key step towards producing gold from its Kat Gap gold project south of Southern Cross in WA by August this year. Classic has a granted mining lease and circa-93,000 ounce JORC gold resource at Kat Gap.

Busy ASX-listed junior explorer, Comet Resources has added geographic and commodity diversity to its portfolio by forging ahead with a deal to acquire large tracts of prospective copper-gold and base metals exploration ground in the Northern Territory. Limited past exploration has turned up promising precious and red metal results. The company now has its foot on 840sqkm of prospective ground in central Australia.

Podium Minerals has upped the ante at its Parks Reef platinum group metals project in WA, having secured a government grant to co-fund the drilling of two holes to test for continuity of the existing mineralisation at depth. The holes will be drilled to more than twice the depth of any previous drilling at the deposit with a third hole also on the cards.

Victoria-focused explorer Dart Mining is shifting its exploration efforts at the Granite Flat copper-gold project into higher gear. A 1,000m diamond drilling campaign has commenced to follow-up on previous eye-catching hits that include a 3m interval going 41.1 g/t gold as the company also looks to test for a monster copper-gold porphyry body at depth.

Impact Minerals’ PGM-base metals hunt at its Broken Hill project in NSW is starting to get interesting. Drilling is set to commence at the Red Hill and Little Broken Hill Gabbro prospects to follow-up previous stellar hits including 138m going 0.3 grams per tonne palladium, platinum and gold, or “3PGM”. Further drilling is also on the cards for the third quarter.

Victory Mines is zeroing in on a potentially serious porphyry copper-gold discovery at its Coogee project in WA. The target is located a mere 15 kilometres north-west of Lefroy’s coveted Burns copper-gold deposit. Resampling of recent drilling at Coogee has revealed a bounty of copper and gold mineralisation including 15 metres at 1 per cent copper and 1.49 grams per tonne gold from only 80m down-hole.

AVZ Minerals continues to make giant strides towards its goal of becoming a significant lithium producer in central Africa, this week securing approval for a draft “Cooperation Agreement” with the newly installed government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The accord opens the door for the establishment of a Special Economic Zone to assist in bringing the world class Manono project into production.

Kingwest Resources will start a new round of deeper drilling at its Menzies gold project north of Kalgoorlie in WA later this month after reporting more high-grade hits from below shallow existing resources at the historic mine. Best new intercepts include 12m at 3.7 grams per tonne gold from 102m and 2m at 17.3 g/t gold from 125m.

Comet Resources has been given the green light to begin drilling at its high-grade Santa Teresa gold project in northern Mexico. The Environmental Impact and Risk assessment department in Baja California has now completed its evaluation of the company’s planned drilling program, clearing the way for diamond drilling to commence in the weeks ahead.

ASX-listed explorer Todd River Resources is waiting for a truckload of assays from nearly 300 drill holes in a large maiden drilling campaign at Berkshire Valley, north of the exciting Julimar nickel and platinum group element discovery in WA. The company suggested the intersected rocks indicate it is in the right geological environment for nickel-copper-PGE mineralisation.

White Cliff Minerals has reported high-grade rock chip sample results from the Cracker Jack gold prospect in WA’s Cue goldfield, including one grading 37.3 g/t gold. More sample assays are due soon and a maiden drilling program at the site, part of the company’s Reedy South project, is just around the corner.